Chapter 44. November

Just as she reached Ronald, who was still by his sister's side in the hall where she had left them to try and find Draco, she heard the first crash of a curse crashing into the castle wall. She spun around, Ronal immediately leaping to her protection and Ginny cosying up behind her. Harry was running towards the stairs that lead down to the Great Hall, his wand at the ready. Instinctively, Hermione and Ron followed suit, Ginny not far behind, bounding down the steps after them. Once they reached the level, there were hexes and curses flying. Professors and aurors fighting against a small group of Death Eaters that seemed to have no trouble fighting off the protection of Hogwarts.

Before Hermione could react, she became a target for one of the Death Eater's she had seen with Draco at the beginning of the year. He was a grotesque middle-aged man who sneered as the curse struck Ronald instead of her. Her friend cursed but didn't stop for too long to nurse his wounds. Prepared, Hermione threw out a protection charm, blocking the man's next attempt at a curse. This only angered the wizard further, charging at the group with his wand outstretched. Hermione was gearing up to fend off any attack, but the man was hit by a stinging jinx cast by an unknown source, distracting him from his target long enough for the crew to get away.

Ginny spotted Harry and pulled Hermione by the arm to follow her, who then dragged Ronald along. He was still wincing from the strike, but he seemed to be managing just fine as they darted through the chaos and out into the grounds of Hogwarts. It was oddly cool for the time of year and just as dark, making Hermione strain to see where Harry had gone off to. She could hear him before she could see him, as he was yelling and throwing curses at one of the Death Eaters who had Draco by the arm. The black figure fended off the attacked easily with subtle flicks of his want. "You killed him! He trusted you!" Harry shouted. She could only see the Draco's glowing white hair, as the rest seemed to be swallowed up by the darkness. It was not that late, but the sky had been overtaken by the Dark Mark howling among the clouds. Desperately, she tried to make out what it was that was happening down the hills that lead to the Dark Forest.

It wasn't until the Death Eater turned to face Harry that Hermione realised who it was that Harry was cursing at. Who it was that he was accusing so vehemently of murder. Severus stood strong, almost looming as he stalked back towards Harry with a threatening gaze. Professor McGonagall had come up behind them as Hermione noted Bellatrix Lestrange poising herself to cast a curse at Harry. The young witch lunged forward, Ronald and Ginny attempting to stop her as she heard Severus bellow: "No, Bella, you must leave him for the Dark Lord."

Hermione nearly vomited, the world spinning around her and forcing her to stumble to a stop. Severus glanced over, noticing her for the first time. His face twisted with an awful mix of regret and sickness. She could not believe her eyes at first. She wanted to believe that it was all a trick of the light and the man before her, taunting her friend, was not the father of her child. The world started spinning and she clung to Ronald to keep from falling over. She screamed but no sound left her mouth as she watched Severus disappear into the darkness of the forest.

Desperately she tried to reason with herself, that whatever Harry was accusing him of was not true. That Draco and Severus couldn't have been at the centre of the invasion by Death Eaters. Their actions in the preceding days, however, played through her mind and cracked her wall of denial. They couldn't have both known something was coming, they would have said something, she attempted to reason, reconstructing the view of the two men in her mind. Draco was her friend, and Severus was her partner. They cared for her. They would have told her, asked for her help. They trusted her as much as she trusted them.

Numbness overcame her as she sat down on the cool grass, staring at the shadow Severus and Draco had faded into.

-x-

Ronald held her hand as they stood staring down at the lifeless form of their Headmaster. Harry was kneeling beside him, sniffling through the tears falling from his cheeks. Hermione couldn't control the saltwater pouring down her face either, as she attempted to reconcile the last few weeks. Ginny stepped forward, helping Harry up from his spot on the ground before he folded into her. Hermione could hear the quiet sobs of her classmates and murmurs through the crowd as they collectively mourned the loss.

Professor McGonagall started, raising her wand to the sky and casting a wordless cancelling spell into the sky. Soon, the rest of the witches and wizards gathered around followed suit, riding the clouds of the Dark Mark and allowing the sun to burn through. Hermione didn't deem it much of an improvement, as the heat of the sun fell upon her, but the students who had stayed behind were ushered back into the castle shortly thereafter. Most kept to the great hall, mourning with their friends, but Harry guided Ron, Ginny, and Hermione to the top of the astronomy tower.

They spent a long while looking down at the spot where Dumbledore's body had once been before Harry pulled something from his pocket. "We got it," he started, his voice dry from the crying. "But it's useless, nothing more than a fake," he spat, pushing the locket into Hermione's hands. "Go on, open it." Cautiously, Hermione opened the locket to reveal a note and unfolded it gingerly.

"To the Dark Lord, I know I will be dead long before you read this but I want you to know that it was I who discovered your secret. I have stolen the real Horcrux and intend to destroy it as soon as I can. I face death in the hope that when you meet your match, you will be mortal once more. R.A.B," Hermione read aloud.

"Who's R.A.B?" Ronald asked, stepping forward. Ginny had snaked into Harry's side and was holding onto him tightly.

"I don't know," Harry whispered. "But I'll have to find out if we want to find the real locket, or make sure it was destroyed." This determination seemed to strengthen his resolve, prompting him to stand a bit straighter.

"We will help you, Harry," Hermione chimed in, attempting to hide her gloom. She had been mindlessly fiddling with the ring on her finger, but when she had attempted to pull it off, it seemed stuck.

Harry reached out and placed his hands on her shoulders. "Hermione I- if it helps, Draco wouldn't have killed him. He was backing down." Obviously, she hadn't done a good enough job of masking her feelings. "In the end, it was Snape that did it," Harry was trying to be comforting. The comment only shattered her heart further inside her chest, sending shrapnel ripping through her flesh, her throat burning with the threat of tears. The agony lingered and morphed into a sort of dull ache, and there wasn't much she could do to stop it.

Ron came up to her next. "We forgive you, Hermione," he said, pulling her into a hug. "He lied to you, he convinced you he had changed. We don't fault you for trusting him." Hermione's wall completely broke down and she let her weight fall into her friends' arms, sobbing as she did.

"I loved him," she sputtered, images of Severus flashing through her mind. His embrace, his kisses, the way he made her laugh. He kept her safe. He loved her. He loved their baby. All that so easily thrown away over the command of his Dark Lord. Perhaps it was all a lie. He had told her about so much, let her in on so many details of his life. She swore she knew him. She swore she loved the man she knew. Obviously, there was so much he hadn't told, that he'd kept from her, buried deep in his chest. If he could keep such secrets so close to his heart, maybe there had never been room for her.

-x-

Hermione was welcomed to the Burrow slowly. She had to announce her pregnancy under horrific circumstances. The witch was pregnant with a Death Eater's child. However, the Order was under the impression that it was a Malfoy heir, and to them, Draco was just as guilty of killing Dumbledore as Snape was. She had built off the story that she had fallen for Malfoy's lies and deceptions, that he let her get close to him for information on what Harry and the Order were planning. They believed her, that she had known nothing of the plan to kill Dumbledore and that she had simply fallen so hard for him that she couldn't see what it was he was doing. They all pitied her. The Order agreed that there was nothing she could do about it now and so the best they could do was help her in shaping a new life for the child on the way.

Hermione was forced to wait out the mission of moving Harry from his place on Privet Drive to the Burrow with Ginny and Mrs Weasley. She tried to convince herself she didn't mind being held back. Due to her condition, she wouldn't have been able to use the Polyjuice potion and she wasn't much of a flyer to begin with, so they decided it would be best she if stayed behind. Hermione had minded terribly. Mrs Weasley had taken to cleaning every surface of the house, which was normally Hermione's tactic when it came to stressful situations, and so there was nothing for Hermione to do but sit and read and occasionally glance outside the window. She had been rereading the same paragraph of her book since she sat down, not able to focus on the words in front of her. Her fingers wouldn't stop fiddling, as though all her nervous energy was held in the palms of her hands. Hermione had not yet been able to remove the ring that had attached itself to her finger, making it the centre of attention for her fidgeting. She'd tried growth charms, slickening spells, she had even tried to shrink her fingers themselves, but it seemed nothing would get the ring to come off. The witch was struggling to get used to the sensation of the metal against her skin.

She was five months along and had already knitted every possible pink thing she could think of for a baby. Mrs Weasley and Ginny had surprise Hermione by setting up a nursery in the burrow, which had made Hermione burst into tears at the time. Looking back on it, she felt mostly embarrassed at her outburst. Since Ron had been in on her secret for a while, he had warmed up to the idea far quicker than the rest of the family, but they had determined that if Ronald was okay with it, then they could be too. The lingering thought that Ronald was hoping for more of a role in the child's life made her uncomfortable since the thought of anyone other than Severus holding their child crushed her heart just that much more.

Every night, it seemed, she woke from nightmares, visions of Severus running off into the forest. Flashes of Dumbledore's corpse. She hadn't seen his death first-hand, but her mind was quick to fill the gaps and put together every possible play-through of the murder whenever she slept. This made it hard for the witch to get any rest, even though all the members of the household frequently commented on exactly how tired she looked.

The worst part of being stuck at the Burrow was that while everyone else had tasks to complete for the Order, Hermione had an overwhelming amount of time to sit with her thoughts. Harry and Ginny were still traceable and were therefore of limited use, but they seemed to be of more use than Hermione. If she has simply fallen in love with her professor, only to be betrayed by him, she would have had all the missions and adventures to distract from her broken heart. Or better yet, if she hadn't ventured the idea of being in a relationship with her professor, at all, she wouldn't have a broken heart at all. As such, she was pregnant, therefore deemed inutile and even a liability in such events. Mrs Weasley wasn't terrible company, and being pitied was better than being hated. Hermione would have preferred neither if she'd had the choice.

When a crack sounded in the front yard, Hermione and Mrs Weasley leapt to their feet and out the door. George was bleeding from his ear, having turned back into himself, and was being helped towards the house by Mr Weasley. Hermione rushed to aid him into the house, quick to summon bandages and cleaning solutions.

Ronald and Fred soon bounded through the door and to their brother's side, tending to him. Hermione stood and turned around, only to run into Harry, whom she threw her arms around and held closely. "I'm so glad you're alright," she whispered into his shoulder. Harry didn't linger long, pulling away from her and moving to hug Ginny who was now standing beside the couch. The rest of the mission members, including Lupin and Tonks, entered the room.

Tonks walked over to Hermione and hugged her. "Looks like our kids will get to go to school together then," she joked, looking down at Hermione's growing belly. Hermione wanted to smile, to joke about them growing up together and having play dates, but the future seemed extremely disconnected from reality.

"That would be nice, for her to have a friend," Hermione shrugged, hugging herself.

"You know it's a girl?" Tonks asked. Hermione nodded and made a noise of agreement, her gaze shifting to the cluster of Weasleys fawning over George who lay on the couch with a lopsided grin. "Do you have a name picked out?" The question tightened something around Hermione's heart. She had a name. Severus had come up with a beautiful name for their daughter.

"Annabelle Jean- er, Granger I suppose," she offered, the name feeling foreign on her tongue. Annabelle Jean Snape, she repeated in her head. Daughter of a murderer.

-x-

On the day of Bill and Fleur's wedding, everyone was running on excited energy. Thankfully, there were simple, last-minute tasks that Hermione had been in charge of to keep her busy. She helped Ginny with flower arrangements and organized the presents coming in from multiple different owls. Crookshanks aided in her quest to make up name cards for the guests by sitting on them, littering them all with orange fur. She hadn't even had time to sit down and read the book Dumbledore had left her in his Will.

She had managed to go an entire morning without an intrusive thought. But when a bout of nausea hit her like a train, she was reminded of exactly how she had gotten into this mess. Crying by the toilet, she leaned her head against the cool porcelain rim of the bowl and tried to regulate her breathing. It had been over a month since she last saw Severus, and there wasn't a moment that went by that she wasn't thinking of him. Every time she caught herself in a reflection, every time there was the smell of spices in the burrow, or Mrs Weasley brewed a potion. Every book she read, every tea she sipped, his image would float by in her mind. She had gotten better at masking her pain, brushing it off or going on as if nothing had happened. Her friends were endearingly supportive but always walked on eggshells around the topic of her pregnancy or the events leading to Dumbledore's death.

Hermione had spent the morning of the wedding attempting to glamour her stomach as to draw not attention away from the bride and groom. It wasn't as though she hadn't perfected the charm, but nothing seemed to be sticking and the glamour she placed when she was at Hogwarts had long since faded. Standing, Hermione assessed herself in the bathroom mirror. Her hair had also not taken to taming charms, but Mrs Weasley has managed a subtle up-do that calmed her locks a bit. The older witch told her it was common for one's magic to be on the fritz during pregnancy and it was nothing to worry about. There were a few fly-aways that made her look a touch frazzled, but she mostly looked okay. She wore a purple floral dress that Ginny had picked out for her while she was shopping for her own dress for the wedding. It had a straight silhouette with short sleeves, a high neckline, and fell just above her knees. With a few adjustments, it sat comfortably over her belly. Thankfully, her clothing had not been immune to magic, though she had still left that task to someone else.

Nevertheless, Hermione brushed herself off and washed out her mouth before she went down to join the party. There were whispers, curious witches and wizards who were shocked to see a young pregnant witch, but no one asked anything. Fleur was kind, always swooping in to steal the attention away whenever she sensed that gossip was spreading through the attendees. Normally, Hermione would find that attention-seeking behaviour ridiculous, but she knew that the witch was doing it as a kindness to her.

It was a beautiful wedding. Candles floated in the tent, casting a romantic glow on the dancefloor, where Fleur and Bill were happily entwined. The icy blue flowers on every table seemed to flutter with energy that added to the magical air. All the guests were well dressed in everything from their nicest dress-robes to spectacular displays of wizarding fashion. Fleur's dress, which she had explained was a product of France, was airy and dreamy, fitting her silhouette perfectly. Bill was in his father's robes from when Bill and Molly got married and looked quite fit, even if they were vintage.

Hermione had managed to get a few dances in with her friends before she had to sit down, her bag, packed with quick getaway requirements, held tightly within her fingers. She had been packing for a while, making sure they had everything they needed for the mission ahead. Curative potions she had brewed with Mrs Weasley, books for research, clothes for all seasons, food and water. She wanted to be ready for anything. Her eyes met with Ronald's and he started walking over to her. However, her attention was pulled away when a doe pranced into the middle of the dancefloor, silencing the crowd. Enraptured, Hermione stood and approached the creature, jumping back when it declared: "The Ministry has fallen. Scrimgeour is dead. They are coming" The party quickly devolved into a panic. She stood for a moment, watching the Patronus dissolve, and tried to place where she recognized the voice.

She was shaken from her thoughts when a guest bumped into her, nearly knocking her over. Hermione rushed to find Harry and Ronald, hastily, she trapped her friends' hands and nodded to Ron who took them away with a crack. They landed outside a small pub in the countryside of Ireland, it seemed, from what Hermione knew of the country. Ron hurried them inside and they took a seat in a corner table, huddled together.

"So what do we do now?"

-x-

The first months passed slowly as they tried to find the first Horcrux, the locket, but once it was found, the days seemed to drag on even longer. They had managed encounters with snatchers, Death Eaters, and even escaped the Ministry, but their task to destroy the Horcrux seemed impossible. It was the middle of autumn, Hermione was very nearly ready to burst, and they had next to nothing figured out on how to destroy the locket. Harry was irritable, at best, and Ronald was equally as affected by the locket's presence. Hermione wasn't allowed to wear it, worried it's dark magic would harm the child, but Hermione was getting sick of being so useless. She had managed to reach The Tales of Beedle the Bard was seemed like a hundred times, and come up with no reason for it being there other than something she would be able to recite to her future child.

It was cold in the camp, but thankfully Hermione was bundled up and the boys were tending the fire outside the tent. Her mind drifted to childhood memories, remembering the joy of being in her first year at Hogwarts. How close she and her friends had been in the years leading to their sixth. She realised that she had practically abandoned them in favour of their professor. Hermione had always been the witch with her head squared on her shoulders, her priorities sorted, and rarely had time for romantic entanglement. And yet, somehow, she had managed to let that all slip away over a man who taught potions to children.

She recalled their first tutoring session, how quickly they warmed to each other. How the threat of losing one another only brought them closer. She could almost feel his lips pressed against her own, his hands pulling her close to him. Her eyes were always shut tight, and she was terrified to open them, in case he should be gone when she did. His fingers ghosted her legs, leaving her flesh tingling all over as the electricity between them crackled. Chewing her lip, she begged to feel his touch, for him to undress her, kiss every inch of her longing form. She ached for the sweet release that came with each encounter she had with him over their short time together. But it wasn't just the sex she missed. She missed sitting in front of a fire, reading books and drinking tea. She missed his lessons, where he taught her impressive spells she wouldn't have learned in the classroom and helped her master the ones she would. It was a brief time together, but it had been the most exciting time of her life.

"Hermione?" Ron's voice broke through her reverie.

"Hm?" Hermione sat up, folding the book she'd held in her lap and letting go of a shaky breath, which was visible against the cold air.

"I think Harry wants to sleep, do you mind standing guard for a bit?" Hermione agreed and reached out for Ronald to help her from the floor, placing a hand under her bottom for a bit of extra leverage. As she stood, a pain shot through her side that burned like fire. She cried out, grasping her abdomen and releasing another shaky breath. "Are you alright?" Ron asked, placing a steadying hand on her shoulder.

"I'm fine," she croaked. The pain seemed to have passed, so she steadied herself and gingerly stepped forward, opening the tent door before another pain stabbed the other side of her back.

Ron was quick to her side, holding her up as she nearly toppled over. "I don't think you're alright, 'mione," Ron reasoned.

Hermione wanted to insist she was fine, but she was wincing through the discomfort. Harry appeared in front of her. "Is it safe to apparate this late in the pregnancy?" He questioned, looking to Ron as if he would have the answer. Hermione would have laughed if it weren't for the third shooting pain radiating around her midsection.

Through clenched teeth, Hermione spoke, "I'll need help apparating, but you have to leave the minute you drop me off. And move. If anyone follows you back here-" the witch couldn't finish her sentence. In a scramble, the boys packed up their campsite and grabbed onto her arms. They landed in an alley outside a muggle hospital in London.

"It's where they brought Dudley for his broken arm," Harry explained.

"I'll find you when I can." Hermione didn't hesitate, shoving her bag into their arms before waddling towards the front entrance. Turning back, she noticed they hand left and she motioned angrily for them to do so. Harry took Ron's elbow and they vanished with a crack.

Annabelle Jean Granger was born on November 13th, 1997.

So we've got about 9 chapters left, give or take, and I'm absolutely thinking of doing a sequel! Not ready for this story to end quite yet. As always, I love to hear your thoughts. Hope you're all keeping well!